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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Jupiter Ascending Upon Godzilla

If there's one thing that's stuck with me from my time in Japan, it's the schedule that movie studio Toho sticks to when it comes to releasing the latest films in their biggest franchises. And that schedule is:

As such, whenever the holidays roll around, I can't help but get the itch to toss some Godzilla in the DVD player. As such, I wish we were getting a new Godzilla movie in theatres right now. And I really want to see the new Godzilla movie RIGHT NOW after seeing the first trailer for the latest American attempt to do a remake.

Yup, 15 years after 1998's Godzilla, the USA figured it was time once again to do their own rendition of Godzilla. Legendary Pictures, the production company that partnered with DC Comics and Warner Brothers to do the Dark Knight Trilogy, acquired the movie rights to Godzilla back in 2010, and immediately went to work on producing a new, Americanized version. To bring about this new version, Legendary got British director Gareth Edwards, whose 2010 indie film debut Monsterslooked like he knew a thing or two about giant monster movies. And to help out Edwards, legendary director and screenwriter Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile) came on board to help write the screenplay.

Edwards put together an all-star cast, including Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick Ass in the Kick Ass movies), rising star Elizabeth Olson, Bryan Cranston (fresh of Breaking Bad) and Ken Watanabe. A release date of May 2014 was locked in, and we got our very first trailer today.

OH. MY. GOD. I've become much better versed in Godzilla lore since that 1998 film, and all I can say is, this looks like a Godzilla movie. This really does look like they took Godzilla back to his roots. Never forget, Godzilla was meant to represent the destruction caused by nuclear weapons, personified, and this...well, this looks like war.

We got the poster, too, and the trailer will be in theatres in front of The Hobbit. Godzillahits theatres on May 16.

And while I'm blogging about trailers, there's another one that came online that didn't make as big a splash as the Godzilla trailer, but it did catch my eye. And that's the for Jupiter Ascending, the latest film from the Wachowskis.

The Wachowskis have yet to recapture the acclaim they got for The Matrix Trilogy. (Well..The Matrix at least.) They wrote and produced the film version of V for Vendettato mixed reviews. I love the living hell out of Speed Racer, but I know I'm about one of twelve people on the planet who feel that way. But Cloud Atlasgot lots of critical love, and I haven't seen it yet.

But after those adaptations, the Wachowskis are back with their latest original idea, Jupiter Ascending. As with The Matrix trilogy, the Wachowskis are playing it pretty close to the vest, so we don't know too much about it.

We do know this brief plot synopsis. Our heroine is Jupiter, a lowly cleaning lady in Chicago. One day, though, she's abducted by intergalactic bounty hunter Caine, for something about her genetic make-up makes her a threat to the evil Queen of the Universe. Of course, Caine must help Jupiter unlock her genetic potential, overthrow the Queen, and save the universe.

Jupiter is played by Mila Kunis, Caine is played by Channing Tatum, and Sean Bean pops up as well.

Everything about this trailer just looks...familiar. A very familiar looking sci-fi universe. Same ol' spaceships, same ol' outer space action. And the plot. A person leading a mundane existence who's believed to be "The One" and is whisked away to another world to try to save it. Well, Wachowskis, if you know what works for you....